Meryl Streep has said that Hollywood has a tendency to “Marvel-ize” characters, reducing them to something “so boring”.
20 years after The Devil Wears Prada was first released, Streep reunited with Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, and Stanley Tucci for the recently released sequel, which sees Hathaway’s Andy Sachs return to Runway magazine as a senior editor, where she encounters Streep‘s icy Miranda Priestly.
The first film turned her prickly one-liners into pop cultural shorthand, including the much meme-ed barb: “Florals for spring? Groundbreaking,” which cemented Priestly as a fan favourite.
Speaking about her latest portrayal of the character in a recent interview, Streep said she appreciated her many layers. When Hits Radio Breakfast Show host Fleur East pointed out that the sequel showed a softer side to the Editor-in-Chief, Streep said it was “a realistic view” of a complex woman.
“I think when we tend to Marvel-ize the movies now – we got the villains and we got the good guys – and it’s so boring.”
“And what’s really interesting about life,” she continued, “is that some of the heroes are flawed and some of the villains are human and interesting and have their own strengths. So that’s what I like about this [film]. It’s messier.”
NME gave the film a four-star-review, noting that Streep’s “queenly editor may be a little less devilish than she was in the Smartphone era, but she’s still capable of giving a scheming rival an absolutely savage dressing down”.
“This is still a smart and satisfying sequel,” Nick Levine writes. “The Devil Wears Prada 2 feels like a sleek update on a classic, not a cheap knock-off that falls apart in the wash.”
The Devil Wears Prada 2 contains three brand new songs by Lady Gaga, namely her Doechii collaboration ‘Runway’, ‘Shape Of A Woman’ and ‘Glamorous Life’. The rest of the film features needle drops by several other big names, including Miley Cyrus, Raye, Dua Lipa and SZA.
You can check out the full tracklist for the soundtrack album here.